To the survivors of school shootings
Your survival is the ultimate form of protest
Dear survivors of the Parkland school shooting,
I’m thinking of you, unsure of what to say, fearful that I will say the wrong thing. The last three weeks have been hard: Two of your Parkland classmates, maybe your friends, ended their lives. I don’t want to lose you, too. So, I’m reaching out to offer my support, love and attention, and my hope that if you are now considering or have considered suicide, you understand there is help and hope.
I lost a high school friend and running competitor to suicide. Maybe ‘competitor’ is too strong a word: I shouldn’t consider myself a challenger to the man I’ll call Jimmy Sherman, who was a state champion in the mile. I got to know him mostly from afar, back in the pack. He led almost every race I saw him in, setting the pace for everyone else. I don’t know if he knew, but Jimmy was a hero in my mind.
When he took his life in our college years, I really felt the loss of leadership — to me, he had always been a champion in so much more than a race.
This country’s plague of school shootings has made it clear that all parents are connected, as our children’s fates are inextricably linked. As a parent, I can’t help but feel a connection to you, and I humbly reach out as a father who fears that the killer who took the lives of CONTINUE READING: To survivors of school shootings: your survival is ultimate form of protest
